AUSTIN, Texas — CES might be where products and technologies debut, but South By Southwest’s Interactive portion is where the ideas behind them go to explode. Well, ideally. In practice, it’s where people with ideas go to mingle—and people without ideas go hoping to find ideas. While Interactive was once the smallest part of the entire festival, it’s become the most high-profile; now, with thousands of entrepreneurs, companies, gamers, and “thought leaders” descending on Austin, we set out to find a few people to talk to. Some are well-known, some are upstarts, some are just here to have some fun, but they’re all worth knowing (or just knowing about). Expand the gallery above to read their stories.